PLACE

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s rooted in place—shaped by soil, sea, and season. Here in Hastings, on the south coast of England, the land holds deep history. Chalk cliffs meet tidal waters. Ancient forests and wild hedgerows line the edges of old paths. There is a rhythm here—a quiet insistence to slow down, to pay attention, to remember we are not separate from the earth beneath our feet. Of The Wild was born from this landscape. The moss underfoot, the salt on the air, the call of birds overhead—they remind us of our own belonging. Of cycles older than us. Of a way of being that honours relationship over extraction, rhythm over rush. This page is a pause. A breath. A moment to remember: Your work, your creativity, your presence—they are not separate from place. Let your roots go deep. Let the land shape you, too.

AN INVITATION

Take a moment. Wherever you are, pause.

Notice the land around you.
The shape of the horizon. The scent of the air.
The ground beneath your feet, and the story it holds.

Let your work be in conversation with that place.
Let it be shaped by where you are—by what’s growing, changing, decaying, becoming.

We are not separate. We never have been.

LEARN MORE

Black and white photograph of a busy street with pedestrians and storefronts, with a hillside in the background.

This is an invitation to explore your own relationship with the land you live on. Not through ownership or control—but through attention, memory, care. In Britain, many of us have become disconnected from the landscapes that shaped our ancestors. But there is a quiet movement of remembering—of returning to place, of walking old paths, of tending what remains.

Here are some thoughtful starting points to explore that reconnection:

  • Common Ground – A UK-based organisation championing local distinctiveness. Their work celebrates everyday landscapes, seasonal rituals, and the ties between nature, culture, and identity. commonground.org.uk

  • The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane – A lyrical book exploring ancient tracks and hidden paths across Britain. A meditation on how walking can root us in place and history.

  • The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd – A quiet, profound account of time spent in the Cairngorms. Shepherd writes not to conquer nature, but to listen deeply to it.

  • The British Pilgrimage Trust – Reviving the practice of pilgrimage in Britain, encouraging people to walk slowly and meaningfully across sacred and historic landscapes. britishpilgrimage.org

  • Local history & folklore archives – Visit your nearest library, heritage centre, or community archive. Folk customs, dialects, and old field names hold clues to how people once lived with the land—before enclosure, extraction, and industrialisation took hold.

“The land itself holds memory. It is the keeper of our stories, told and untold.”

— Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways